Reflections & archive related to January 2016 visit to iii unit at University of Tokyo. Andrew Gryf Paterson, 08.11.2016 In the middle of January 2016, I was a visitor to the Interfaculty Initiative on Information Studies (iii) unit of the University of Tokyo, thanks to the invitation by Prof. Shin Mizukoshi. I am a Scottish artist-organiser and independent researcher, and I am based in Helsinki (Finland) and rural Latvia. I am currently completing my Doctor of Arts article-based manuscript for the Department of Media at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture in Helsinki. It was truly an honour and pleasure to accept the invitation to share and present my approach and reflections on doctoral thesis work and process. It was also my first visit to Japan, following a twenty year ambition to visit Tokyo, and I had the opportunity to do so as a short 4-day stop-over visit, in the middle of a month-long guest-researcher residency at Dimension+ Maker Lab in Taipei, Taiwan. Prof. Mizukoshi & I first met in Helsinki on faculty visit to Medialab Helsinki, and shared an interest in storytelling and mobile media, and we have met regularly when the professor has visited Finland over the years since. We both took part within the Case Pyhäjoki project, initiated by Finnish artist Mari Keski-Korsu in August 2013, which was a 2-week artistic/research-activism residency related to the construction of Finland's 6th Nuclear Power station in a small rural town of the same name—Pyhäjoki—in Northern Ostrobothnia. On meeting again most recently in Helsinki this September, we agreed it was necessary to follow up our January exchange with further reflections and share the related media. We swapped gifts, cultural and research artefacts, and hope that they can collaborate between Finland and Japan again in the future. My presentation was titled as a "2hr 'epic' story of an undisciplinary artist doing fieldwork in Finland and Latvia". And so on the 14th January, we had an informal occasion for a small group of Prof. Mizukoshi's doctoral candidates and fellow interdisciplinary faculty members. I focused my presentation upon request to story-telling the long ('epic version') story of my artistic, activist and academic journey in Finland, Latvian and beyond for over 10 years. The extra-ordinary length of my doctoral study within the context of Finnish art and design academia is not so unusual, especially when it is unfunded and often takes place alongside professional practice. Moreover, in my case, the longer duration becomes a special, positive feature. “Stratigraphical Narratives” refers to my methodological interest in stratigraphy (the archaeological data recording method) and what I describes as autoarchaeology. It involves charting and mapping layers of inter-related contexts where my practice and research work has take place over time-space, and how they relate to each other, as a representational tool to assist making visible the narrative ‘threads’ and stories about what happened over time. The geneology or origin stories of my research, you might say. I was kindly instructed to not to present much theory at all, but to focus on the story, sharing experiences through images and related narratives, and a curated selection of work that spanned the period from 2003-2013. There was a slight hope and recognition of the potential to conform to the classic form of an epic narrative, where exciting events or adventures extend beyond the usual or ordinary, especially in size or scope. Unconventionally, we agreed that I would also wear my Scottish kilt for the occasion that I was carrying for other reasons, which emphasized cultural particularity of origins, but also created a special feature of my presence. My kilt has featured in several of my ‘artistic fieldwork’ projects in the past, included in their public documentations, so it was not too out of place in a research presentation. Furthermore, the session began with an unusual participatory exercise for all those present: The rolling of woollen felt balls, which hoped to bring each person together in spirit with a non-digital mediation; To get everyone involved in the same experience, as a common ritual or form of ‘communion’, creating a horizontal and relaxed starting point for my very particular and personal experiences. The rest of the session together was followed by 1 and half hours of me telling in English about my work period or phase 2003-2009 to the audience present. Although we intended to have a 20 minute break, and then 1 more hour telling about the period 2009-2013, but we ran out of time. There was another 4 years I could have mentioned. Questions of what is appropriate or not, in ‘epic narrative’ form of academic narration could be asked of me, the researcher, and what is the moral of the story in the end. In reflection, I recognize the experience-value of the wider-framework than usual offered, and generosity offered by Prof. Mizukoshi to tell stories acknowledging them as stories in an academic context, about what one has done as an (artist-organiser) practitioner and researcher. Storytelling is typically an under-appreciated skill related to how we tell about what we do as researchers, especially as the written text and formal presentation lecture formats dominate. However, especially in the case of autoethnography, and autoarchaeology as I advocate for, the appreciation of personal and non-normative approaches to sharing experience, knowledge is arguably crucial for making connection with the listener or reader, especially when socially-engaged artistic or activist approaches are employed, which often seek to generate affinity and affect.

This blog post marks in reflection the archiving of materials related to the presentation—the full range of project presentation pdf-files for 2003-2013, textual abstract, as well as images from the day itself, and the audio-recording of the presentation. They are all shared to the knowledge-commons, via this webpage on archive.org [A summary of my Doctoral research abstract can also be accessed here: https://archive.org/details/paterson-2017-agryfp-auto-archaeologies-da-thesis].

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